


Syzygy

by Kaalja



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Not Anti-Hux, Not Anti-Kylo, Other, Reylo - Freeform, canon-typical situations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 17:48:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15690339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaalja/pseuds/Kaalja
Summary: Kylo Ren struggles to fulfil a legacy while hesitantly reaching out for something more. Rey finds her own new hope and a responsibility she may not be ready for. The war takes an unexpected turn for both. Will Kylo and Rey's choices lead to peace or suffering? Post TLJ. Mostly film compliant with some Legends. Slightly AU with character histories and appearances. Slow burn. Reylo. Pay attention to tags.





	Syzygy

**Author's Note:**

> If you have anti's or other things you can't get over, read the tags and judge from that whether you should move on. If you are okay with people being human beings instead of stereotypical tropes, read on.

It had been a difficult day full of meetings and Hux was lingering in his office yet again. Despite their tumultuous working relationship before, the ginger man seemed both relieved and deeply irritated at Kylo Ren's sudden promotion - odd but not unmanageable. The general had been taught how to shield his mind for the most part, as had all the generals under Snoke, but every so often Kylo would sense a laxness and immediately brush over his mind. He'd done the same when Snoke was alive, only rarely lest his intrusions be seen as an undermining of his late master's authority. Now there was no such restraint upon him and he almost relished in doing the smaller things Snoke's presence had stopped him from.

Unfortunately Hux was actively blocking his mind and Kylo could not gain anything without him knowing. Months ago he wouldn't have cared but now it was imperative that his people see him as Supreme Leader and no longer Snoke's apprentice. Kylo's eyes had been fixed on the datapad before him, one among dozens, and when Hux did not get the point and take an exit he glanced up.

"Is there something other than these findings you have to report, General?"

Hux snapped to attention immediately at the address but seemed almost lost for words. Kylo wondered if it was the absence of the mask. After he'd stopped wearing it around a month ago, those around him used to it had been unnerved and uncomfortable looking at him directly. That was good. They did not need to feel comfort in the presence of their leader. They needed to feel respect, loyalty, and obedience.

"My...my Lord. It has come to my attention that many of the crew are… concerned about your Lordship." the delivery was halted and exceptionally awkward.

Kylo stared at him, shocked, and sat back in his seat. Hux couldn't be serious. Concerned? About Kylo Ren? Preposterous.

"Explain." he said flatly, gesturing for Hux to do so quickly. He was confused and his patience was swiftly starting to wear.

Hux took a breath and blinked slowly, "There have been… many incidents where my Lord has… where the ship's interior has been damaged and I have been… tasked with..."

It took a great deal of control to not slam his hands against the desk and bellow out demands for who, exactly, had these concerns so he could eject them from an airlock. His actions were not to be questioned. But he was no longer an apprentice, he was now the master and his behavior needed to change accordingly. He wasn't so foolish as to think fear was the only thing necessary to instill loyalty. Moments of blinding rage aside, of course.

"With what, General?" Kylo snapped, "I do not possess a wealth of patience!" he raised a hand and used the Force to press just the slightest pressure against the ginger's throat.

The general coughed and stood up straighter and blurted, "I have been tasked with inquiring as to whether your Lordship needs time to adjust to the loss of the S-...of your master."

Kylo Ren's hand dropped and it took a moment process what the general had just said. Time to adjust to the loss? What in the stars was the man jabbering on about? He was still jabbering, in fact, and Kylo focused back on what he was saying.

"… -stand the Force, but I do know that certain things are… different for Force users. I do not intend to overstep my bounds, my Lord. I only wish, the crew only wishes to ensure the absolute health of the Sup- our Lord. For the good of the First Order."

Right, of course. The good of the First Order. Yes, it was paramount. Kylo shook his head and waved his hand for Hux to stop rambling on, which he did. The crew thought he was disturbed by the loss of his master. It made him want to laugh but he refrained. As it was, Hux already seemed to be on the verge of a seizure with how nervous he was. Obviously he expected some form of punishment but Kylo couldn't get past how hilarious the entire notion was to muster up an urge to choke him. At least not all the way.

"Noted. Dismissed."

"But...my Lord..."

Hux rose into the air at Kylo's outstretched hand and was deposited firmly at the door, his eyes wide with fear, "General Hux, your report has been noted and you have been dismissed. I trust my authority will not be questioned further."

"Yes, Lord Ren, of course!" the other man got out quickly, giving a last salute before fleeing the room.

Once he was gone, Kylo Ren did laugh, a dark rumbling in his chest. So the crew thought he was upset because daddy Snoke was dead? If they only knew. He snorted and shook his head, dropping his datapad to the desk. The clattering sound resonated throughout the large office and he stared out through the large viewport at the stars. Hux may be endlessly irritating and disturbingly devoted to the cause but he did supply a steady amount of amusement. Mostly he was just grating. Though their relationship had vastly improved with the death of Snoke.

This room used to be the chamber the former Supreme Leader projected his ridiculously enormous holo in to terrorize and prod at his underlings. Now it had been refitted into two spaces; a meeting room with a single long table and a large office for himself. All clean lines and black marble paired with the shining plating of the ship. No elaborate furnishings or thrones for him, they weren't needed to impress upon his men that he was in charge. All the remaining ships in the fleet had the same thing done, he'd seen to that quickly after his ascension. Interestingly enough there had been zero complaints.

As quickly as possible, Kylo had made it known that he would not answer to the grandiose title, but to his usual moniker. He did not fail to notice the relief on the faces of many at his doing away with the gaudy appellation "Supreme Leader" and he had been forced to repress a smirk at the time, he could relate to the sentiment. Having a four syllable title was beyond stupid and he'd always thought so, though he'd been able to address Snoke simply as Master. At first he thought his usual "Lord Ren" would do just fine and also serve to remind him of his responsibility as Lord Vader's grandson. However, it was becoming a nuisance to hear the thing over and over again as there simply wasn't much else to call a Lord. The first time he had been referred to as someone's "Lordship" he'd almost choked. He would have to find a different title in the future but it would certainly not be a jumbling of nonsense solely meant to lord his power over others. Snoke had been weak in that way.

Snoke. Their self enthroned Supreme Leader. So hands off when it came to anything not directly increasing his power and dominion over the galaxy that it was the generals, and specifically Hux, who had been running things. The new leader's desire to actually be involved and in charge had been quite the adjustment. Some chafed at the idea that their free reign had been truncated but others had been quite pleased at the new Supreme Leader taking a role. The first time he'd told Hux to arrange an official meeting with the generals, the man had practically beamed with joy. He had left the head office so jovially that Kylo thought he might start skipping down to communications deck to summon all the generals to the Finalizer, it had been slightly traumatizing.

The meeting had gone as expected, a dull affair at the long black table in the room adjoining his office on this very ship. Mostly meant to cement his position as head of the First Order and assure the loyalties of what remained of the fleet, it had run on for a perverse amount of time. Holdo's suicide run had damaged morale and it was laid at Kylo's feet to bolster the troops. A new goal was discussed and plans had been started. With Starkiller gone, they needed a new base of operations rather than a floating fleet in space. Planets would be discussed and decided upon after the proper investigations were complete. He had decided before the meeting, but his drive was reinforced to do what Snoke had never truly done. Lead.

Not every officer had been personally vetted by Kylo to ensure their support, but the most important one had. Armitage Hux. The bastard son of Brendol Hux, originator of the current Stormtrooper program, and the hired help. Kylo had initially been dismissive of the ginger general on principle. He'd been outwardly antagonistic since their first meeting so many years ago, though Kylo would grant the reasoning for such was sound if not a little petty. The picture painted from possibly hundreds of occasions Kylo had to sweep gently over the general's mind was an overwhelming frustration towards him.

Kylo was, in Hux's mind, given an enormity of leeway due to his parentage while he had clawed his way to the top from nothing. Literally nothing, as Kylo had found out. At one point in his youth, after a string of murders, Hux had been arrested and destined for a lengthy and very public trial. After ensuring the scandal was officially tidied, his son declared insane and locked away in a medical facility on Naboo to avoid publicity of trial, Brendol abandoned him altogether. Only after Hux's recovery and release had he pursued a military career. The man had gone from mental patient to general within only thirteen years, an unheard of feat for the First Order which prided itself on strict meritocracy and grueling standards.

Kylo had gone through every record pertaining to the man, searching for a reason to have him quietly put down so he could have a measure of peace. Brendol's untimely death seemed promising but there was nothing to connect it to the son and mind probing was not an official form of evidence. Instead what Kylo learned prompted him to devise something of a truce with Hux, a mind like his would be an unrivaled asset and had assuredly been already as far as the Order was concerned. Surprisingly he'd found they could work together – which they did, and well if not strained, after a common ground was reached.

Both desired justice and peace, something the believed only attainable through a galaxy-wide order. A single ruling entity free of the rampant corruption which plagued the Republics, old and new. Though Hux was a little more alarmingly ruthless when it came to any scrap of rebellion, they both agreed it must be stamped out for the sake of peace. Kylo made it clear he would forge that peace with fire and durasteel if he had to, and he'd found Hux a wary but willing assistant. If the galaxy was not brought together by force it would never come together at all and chaos would reign with all the suffering that went with it. He would finish what his grandfather started and no one would be allowed to remain in his way.

The flash of a red saber crossed his vision and he wiped his face with his hand to get rid of the memory of a brief, forgiving touch.

No. He would not be weak. A fool, perhaps, in the past, but not weak. Not now. Unlike his grandfather, he would not give in to the weakness of choosing a side. Of believing there was a side, something so inane, to the Force. It undid him in the end. Instead of sacrificing his son for the good of the galaxy and completing his vision, he died a victim of sentimentality. No. Kylo would not be weak, he would not succumb.

Yes, killing Han Solo had, at its core, been a test meant to torment and oppress him. Yes, he had been foolish to believe his late Master's pressing of how it would relieve his struggle. Yes, he had faltered when the time came. But he had pulled the strength from within himself to make that great sacrifice, something Vader was unwilling to do, for the sake of his vision. Family.

The tie between father and son and he'd shattered it. By the Force, how he suffered for it now but it fired the resolve in him to continue. If he gave up now, it would be for naught. The nightmares, the nausea, the guilt scrabbling at him like a wild animal – they would be meaningless.

_"You are a monster."_

He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, which was now one big enough to fit his large frame. Her eyes had been daggers and he hadn't even bothered to deflect them as they pierced him, needing it from the outside instead of just from inside himself. She was right. She, the abandoned progeny of junk traders from a backwater nothing planet, was correct. Even so, he'd seen her future. Standing at his side was where she'd end up, making their rule complete and whole, and nothing would stop that because nothing would stop him. He was a monster. Stars knew he would become even more if it was necessary. He would make her understand.

Skywalker had likely filled her head with Jedi lies of light and righteousness and emotionless warbling. Of the superiority of one side over the other. It would do her no good, he sensed the darkness within her just like she felt the light within him. She would see, now that Skywalker was gone from doing anymore damage, the futility of it. If the duality inside her was anything like his own, she would have no choice. There would be no peace for her. He felt it every time they connected. It was only a matter of time before she saw the truth.

He would show her.

As he turned his attention back to the datapads, the one he'd dropped about approving comings and goings – even one request from Hux himself, he reached out with the Force. Likely it would have no result, they had not connected since Crait. When she'd shut what felt like a metal door in his face. Still. Perhaps he would feel something of her, the soothing her Force signature had when it mingled with his own. Like water over a burn. Perhaps.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I combined and edited, but do not own, the images in the story cover. They belong to their original copyright holders and I make no profit from their use.
> 
> Finally did it, folks! Here we go with chapter one. Scary? Only for me, likely. Don't forget to leave a story-based review and check out my other work! Same username on FF.net


End file.
